The final round of the global-scale cyber security competition Whitehat Grand Prix 2018 is set to begin on November 1, according to the Information Security Department under the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Ten teams will gather in Hanoi to compete for eight hours in the final round, which will cover security challenges in the Internet of Things (IoT), it added. They are ConutCoffee (the Republic of Korea), Dcua (Ukraine), Pwndevils and Perfectblue (the US), LC1BC (Russia), 0daysober (France), P4team (Poland) and ACEBEAR, Injocker10K and R3s0L (Vietnam).

The qualification round of the event took place in September, drawing 720 teams from 79 countries and territories. They comprised 574 international and 126 Vietnamese teams, the highest number of participants so far.

Themed “Legends of Vietnam”, the Whitehat Grand Prix 2018 is developed around 18 Vietnamese legends in a bid to promote the country’s image and culture.

The IT engineers behind the content come from the Information Security Department, Viettel’s cyber security centre and BKAV Corporation, among others.

The first-prize winner will pocket 230 million VND (10,000 USD), while second and third will walk home with approximately 45 million VND and 25 million VND (2,000 and 1,000 USD), respectively.

In 2014, the first WhiteHat Grand Prix was held simultaneously in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. It became an annual international competition the next year, drawing leading cyber security teams from across the world.

In 2017, Vietnam triumphed at the competition for the first time, which attracted 453 teams from 62 nations and territories.